Boys to Men

An interesting thought cycle one morning on my walks this week, prompted by my walking prayers and a meme on Facebook. A cousin posted a meme about raising little boys. It touched me, of course, since I have boys. It was about raising them not just to be men, but husbands and fathers.

During my walking prayers, I use the Jesus’ Prayer to hold each named person up in the flow of God’s mercy and grace. I start with my immediate family, then my aunts and uncles with their offspring, before moving on to Jeff’s family, chosen-family, friends, colleagues, then to the Bishop and district superintendents, and my churches—present and future.

As I reached this cousin’s family, I particularly gave thanks for her son and her hand in raising him. He is indeed an amazing young man, who is a wondrous husband to his husband. He has no biological children but as a librarian he has touched the lives of so many children. He and his husband are active in the community. One of the events they work with is the annual Easter Egg Hunt.

The boys (and girls) we raise can make such a difference in the world, and particularly in the lives of those who know them and who come after them.

Kyle and Jason, love you both. Thank you, Randi, for being a part of this gift to the world.

Matthew 19:14

“Allow the children to come to me,” Jesus said. “Don’t forbid them, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to people like these children.”

Standing at the Precipice

In a conversation with a friend, a colleague, a spiritual co-mentor, all wrapped up in the same loveable curly-headed being, as we talked about what this impending transition called retirement  means in my life, I had a real sense of where trust in God comes in to play. It can be so easy to talk about trust in God, but in reality it is quite hard. As much as I yearn to trust, as I lean in to trust, I have always had a feeling of standing at a precipice and holding back.

Today, I watched again an amazing short video of people wearing flying suits—think flying squirrels with that extra skin stretched between their legs and bodies—as one by one an entire line of them jumps or falls off a cliff surrendering themselves to the flow of the air currents. The last one wears a camera. While having a sense of flying with that one, we also get to watch the movements of the flier just ahead, hurtling down what is a small canyon, climbing up to the trees, soaring up again to the sky, and… And what? We don’t see how the flight ends.

We are left to wonder in amazement and awe at the apparent fearlessness of the fliers, though I question that assumption. I can only imagine that at least one of the fliers, at some point, had to stand on the rock wondering if they could really let go of the solid ground to trust the air currents. This is where I stand. I have made the decision. There is now a sense of inevitability to the steps ahead of me. I suppose I could turn back, but I won’t. When I stand on the stage at Annual Conference, as my brief statement is read, whatever clothes I have on that day will in reality be a flying suit to carry me on the currents of the air, trusting that whatever comes I am in the flow of God’s future for me.

Acts 17:27b-28a

"In fact, God isn’t far away from any of us. In God we live, move, and exist."